Cambridge A-Level Geography: Core Human Geography — Practice Questions (9696)

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Paper 2 study guide

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Section A

1. Define dependency ratio and explain one factor that affects it. [3]

2. Identify two stages of the demographic transition model and describe the birth/death rate pattern of each. [4]

Section B

3. Explain two factors affecting fertility rate in a named country. [6]

4. With reference to a named case study, evaluate the effectiveness of a country’s population policy on natural increase. [10]

5. Explain two push and two pull factors influencing rural-urban migration in a low income country (LIC). [8]

6. With reference to a named case study, assess the success of infrastructure provision for a city in an LIC or MIC. [10]

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Answers

1. The dependency ratio measures the number of dependants (under 15 and over 64) relative to the working-age population (15-64), usually expressed per 100 working-age people [1]. It is affected by factors such as fertility rate — a higher fertility rate raises the proportion of young dependants, raising the dependency ratio [1] [1].

2. Stage 2: birth rate remains high, death rate falls rapidly (due to improved healthcare/food supply), so population grows rapidly [1] [1]. Stage 4: both birth rate and death rate are low and stable, so population growth is slow [1] [1] (or any two valid stages with correctly matched birth/death rate patterns).

3. Economic factors — in a country where children provide economic value (e.g. agricultural labour, old-age security), fertility tends to remain higher, named with reference to a specific country [1] [1] [1]. Social/political factors — access to education (particularly female education) and family planning policy directly affect fertility rate, with countries investing more in these seeing fertility fall faster [1] [1] [1].

4. A strong answer names a specific country’s population policy (e.g. an anti-natalist or pro-natalist policy), explains its specific measures (incentives, restrictions, education campaigns) [1] [1] [1], evaluates evidence of its actual effect on the natural increase rate over time using real data or trends [1] [1] [1], and reaches a supported judgement on overall effectiveness, acknowledging any unintended consequences or limitations rather than presenting the policy as simply successful or unsuccessful [1] [1] [1] [1].

5. Push factors: lack of economic opportunity in rural areas, e.g. limited paid employment beyond subsistence agriculture [1] [1]; poor access to services such as healthcare and education in rural areas [1] [1]. Pull factors: perceived employment opportunities in urban areas, e.g. in manufacturing or the informal sector [1] [1]; better access to services (healthcare, education, infrastructure) concentrated in cities [1] [1].

6. A strong answer names a specific city and infrastructure project (power or transport) [1] [1], describes what the project actually provided and to whom [1] [1], evaluates its impact using evidence — for example, improved access, economic activity, or reduced travel times — while also considering limitations such as unequal access, cost, or unintended consequences (e.g. displacement) [1] [1] [1] [1], and reaches a supported judgement on overall success rather than a one-sided account [1] [1].

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Exam technique for this paper

Every “management” question (like Q4 and Q6) explicitly requires a named, locatable case study — a real country, a real migration stream, a real settlement, a real infrastructure project — and marks the answer against AO4 (evaluating success and differing viewpoints), not just AO1 (knowledge of what happened). A case study answer that only describes what a policy or scheme did, without assessing how well it worked or whose interests it served, is answering at AO1 level when the question is testing AO4, and will not access the higher mark bands regardless of how detailed the description is. Build a case study bank that spans LICs, MICs and HICs, since a question may explicitly ask you to contrast experiences across income levels, and having examples from only one income group leaves you unable to answer that kind of question well.

Practising cross-topic scenario questions

Because population, migration and settlement dynamics build on each other, the strongest exam preparation practises questions that deliberately span two of the three topics — for instance, a scenario where a country’s changing population structure (Topic 4) drives internal migration (Topic 5), which in turn reshapes a growing city’s structure (Topic 6). Practising this kind of linked reasoning, rather than only revising each topic in isolation, prepares candidates for Section B and C questions that increasingly ask candidates to trace a chain of cause and consequence across the whole paper rather than testing a single topic in a sealed compartment.

Where marks are usually lost

• Giving a generic, unnamed example instead of a specific, locatable case study with real data.
• Describing a policy or project without evaluating how well it worked or whose interests it served.
• Confusing push and pull factors, or repeating the same factor phrased two ways instead of two genuinely distinct factors.
• Answering only from a single income group’s case studies when the question could be better answered with a contrast across income levels.
• Confusing internal migration (within a country, e.g. rural-urban) with international migration (across borders), or applying the wrong set of push/pull factors to the wrong migration type.